Archive for "Food and Drink"
Germany yet another Day
Posted on March 8, 2009 by Brian under Food and Drink, Travel.
Today was a rainy day and on top of that its Sunday. The town pretty much shuts down. There are a few places that are open, the Turkish place on the corner, the Museum and a few pubs. I decided that I was going to try something new from the Turkish place. I have been eating cheese pizzas since I got here. I figured I needed to branch out. Even if my stomach didn’t like what I put into it. I decided to have a traditional Turkish sandwich.
After that I went to the Museum and looked at the history of Attendorn. I really didn’t understand anything because it was all in German, but I could look at the artifacts and admire the history visually. I would like to have shared some pictures with you all but I got in trouble after three pictures and was told that they do not allow photographs. Well not in so many words, the lady that was at the entry came over to me, pointed at the camera and said “NO” with that ever so popular German authority. One of the few pictures I did get was pretty good.
This was one of my favorite things that I saw. Hand crafted from marble and absolutely beautiful. One of the other things that I was going to take a picture of was some beautifully ornate guns from the 18th century. They were inlaid with ivory and gold and were outstanding in there quality. I was about to take a picture when I noticed a camera pointed at me and two seconds later the other attendant from downstairs came walking in. From this point on I was followed every where I went on every floor in every room. I have not had to be followed since I was a teen. It was kind of funny, the girl was really trying hard to make to look like she was not following me but it was really obvious that she was. Especially since she was still wearing her badge and was carrying a portable phone ( I assume to call the police if I continued to photograph things).
I looked at everything the Museum had to offer and was taken away by the religious section. They had some breath taking statues of Christ and Mary and stained glass crosses that were lit from the inside. It was beautiful. The church across the street and the building that the museum resided in are 2 of the oldest in the town. There are two towers left from the wall that surrounded the city that are still standing as well. But they are a little off the path and kind of hard to get to.
I met some other Viega folks from America on the way back to the hotel. I stopped at a confection store and picked up some German chocolate for Ching. Three of the folks from logistics and Quality came walking in. We talked for a little while. It was nice to speak to people that spoke English. I had told them about the things I had learned about food and what not. They had already run into the receipt problem and were a little concerned. i advised them to just keep track of the stuff they spend and talk it over with there supervisors.
Tomorrow I get a tour of one of the manufacturing facilities. It should be an adventure. We will see if I get to take pictures there. Germans seem to be very against photographs for some reason. I got stairs from people every time I was taking a picture. I don’t understand what is so wrong with a few photos. Its not like the camera steels your soul. Maybe tomorrow when i blog I will have some cool things to share.
I will have my wife post a link to all of the pictures that i have taken on my journey. till next time.
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Despite the Weather
Posted on December 20, 2008 by Ching under Food and Drink, Life.
I made it to the gym at 8:00 AM today despite the cold weather. As soon as I stepped out of the door and felt the cold air, I immediately regretted my plan to work out. I just wanted to stay curled up in bed. I had so many excuses not to go: being on call this weekend and feeling unmotivated and waiting for my FedEx package… None of them worked. Good thing too, because I had a good workout day.
I took it easy in muscle pump and did really light weights. I don’t really push myself in that class. Actually, I’m finding that I haven’t been pushing myself to my full potential lately. That’s another blog, though. I took it easy in both workout classes, but I had a lot of fun. We did our routine backwards in step class. It was very confusing at first, but we all got it in the end. I love that class. It is my favorite. I make it to that class on most Saturdays even though I don’t feel like going to workout all week. It gives me my dancing fix because the instructor’s routine is well choreographed.
I’m really glad I made it to muscle pump because I ran into Kristin, my potential new workout buddy. It turns out she got a job in Minneapolis and is moving in January. So much for that. I am really sad because I really thought that I finally found someone who likes early morning workouts on Saturdays. Our workout buddy relationship ended before we could even get started. Now, I need to find someone else to fill that void. I’m thinking I should post an ad on Craigslist: Overweight Asian Female in search of new Workout Buddy to keep her motivated. =P
On the plus side, my favorite class (the 9:00 AM advanced step class) is moving to 10:30 AM after January 1st so it might be easier to find a new workout buddy because then I don’t have to limit my search to early morning people. You can somewhat sleep in and still make it to a 10:30 AM group exercise class. At least, that should be a lot easier for those who like to party hard on Friday nights. Actually, it should be easier on me as well because I tend to stay up late on Fridays due to our weekly poker thing at Highlands.
By the way, the North YMCA was super crowded today because of the “Breakfast with Santa” event. Ugh. It was horrible. It wasn’t bad early in the morning when I first got there, but leaving was a bit of a challenge. I had to squeeze my way through a sea of people. Although, after they got a wiff of my sweaty stench they all parted like the red sea and I found my way to the door with no problems.
When I arrived home, I found Brian waiting for me all excited. FedEx delivered my Blurb book while I was out. He said it arrived a little after 9:00 AM, but he didn’t want to tell me because he was afraid that I would cut my workout short and run all the way home. He is probably right. I had been anxiously awaiting the book’s arrival since the day I ordered it.
Right now I’m blogging and munching on the cookies Katrine made, effectively ruining my appetite for lunch. Her cookies are so good, though. It’s hard to believe they are homemade. Except they are not as soft as they were the day that Brian first got them. He convinced me that they’re still good, though.
ME: Are you sure these cookies are still good?
BRIAN: Yes. They are perfectly fine.
ME: How come they are hard and not soft and chewy anymore?
BRIAN: Well, they’re stale.
ME: Then why are you letting me eat them?! Don’t you know that stale equals not good?
BRIAN: Just because they’re stale doesn’t mean they’re not good anymore. They’re not moldy, are they?
ME: No, but they are hard.
BRIAN: Then don’t eat them.
ME: But they taste so good.
It’s a sick cookie paradox. You’re damned if you do, and your damned if you don’t. It was easier to leave them alone after I ate all of the chocolate-y ones. Katrine makes awesome cookies. I was going to post a “Thank You” note on her Facebook wall, but couldn’t find her. Brian told me that she unfriended me because I update too much. LOL. =P
Anyway, it’s almost time to shower. Until next time. Have a great weekend!
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Nuts from Nifty Nut House
Posted on December 19, 2008 by Ching under Food and Drink.
Our boss gave each of us a box of mixed nuts from the Nifty Nut House. Yum! Except I left my box at work (I had left it out so that my team and other CSRs could have some) and forgot to take it home with me. I’m debating on whether or not I want to go back to work later and get it. =P
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Will Deal Cards for Food
Posted on December 15, 2008 by Ching under Food and Drink, Life, Poker.
On Friday night at Highlands Jen was like, “So did you have to go to school to deal cards?” I explained to her that Brian and I just got to tag along on the cruise because they had two dealer spots open. We didn’t really have any formal training.
“I’m sure that the real casino dealers like the ones in Vegas receive special training, but Brian and I just dealt for that trip.” I mean, I doubt we would be able to do anything like that ever again. That’s really what I was thinking. I guess I spoke too soon.
Sunday morning (well, it was like noonish but Brian and I were still laying in bed) I received a call from Shane. He said he needed two dealers for a private holiday party at Highlands. We would get compensated for two hours of work from 7 pm to 9 pm. I woke Brian up for a quick deliberation. We figured we would be done with our movie, The Day the Earth Stood Still, by 6 pm so we would have plenty of time. Called Shane back to tell him that yes, we would do it and we would even come early.
Dealing cards for a group of inebriated people is a lot less stressful than dealing for a bunch of APL players who watch your every move. You don’t have to worry about being perfect or being fast. However, it’s not without challenges. I was lucky that I had a couple of people at my table who knew how to play Texas hold’em pretty well. I only had to focus on the other five, making sure they knew the rules of the game and the hand rankings and all that jazz. Although, I still had to make sure that people knew when it was their turn to act because after a few drinks (some people had a lot) no one knew what was what.
We played a couple of 30-minute rounds and then at the end of each round, the player with the most chips won a prize. The prize for the first round was a $15 gift certificate to Highlands and then we gave away four Thunder hockey tickets in the second round. I totally spaced out and let the same guy win both though, and we weren’t supposed to do that. I didn’t realize it until after we were done and Brian told me that one of the guys at his table wasn’t happy about that rule because he really wanted the hockey tickets.
Anyway, at my table the guy in second place came pretty close in the second round. He technically should have won the hockey tickets because the other guy won the gift certificate already. I was a dum-dum, though, and I let the other guy win again. I didn’t realize it until after we were done and Brian and I huddled to tell each other what happened at our tables. That really bothered me, but I couldn’t do anything about it because Kurt was busy wrapping things up. I felt really bad. I hoped that Kurt would have a second before the guy left for the evening so that I could talk him into giving me four Thunder hockey tickets in exchange for getting paid so that I could rectify my mistake. Kurt was really cool about it, though. He gave me four tickets to fix my boo boo and I still got paid.
Kurt gave Brian and I the option of getting paid in cash or getting paid in the form of gift certificates. We opted for gift certificates because we are at Highlands at least once a week and we would definitely put it to good use. Althought, I wish I would’ve known about this opportunity before I bought a bunch of Highland gift certificates from Entercom. They’ve got a 50% off deal going on right now where you get $50 in gift certificates for $25. I couldn’t pass it up so I bought some. I guess they’ll be seeing a lot of us until all these gift certificates are used up. Even then, we’ll still keep coming back. LOL.
BTW, Brian was telling me about this overly flirtatious woman at his table. He was like, “If I weren’t married I probably could have gotten laid tonight.” Har har. Very funny. Not to burst Brian’s bubble, but I’m pretty sure the woman in question was flirting with everyone.
I told one of my coworkers about it this morning. I wasn’t upset or anything, I was simply sharing the story because I thought it was funny. She was like, “Doesn’t Brian wear a wedding ring?”
“Sure he does,” I told her. “Apparently she was too drunk to notice.”
Anyway, I was pretty impressed with how the whole holiday party went. Sure the card games portion of the evening started a little late and ran a little over, but everything (at least that I could see) seemed to flow pretty smoothly. I think the guests really enjoyed themselves. Then again, I’m looking at it from the other side so I could be a little biased.
Our own holiday party at Margarita’s the previous day seemed like mayhem in comparison, specially with the whole double booking situation and not getting our food until several people were done eating and had to go boxes already. Carly said the people there were really unfriendly.
I told her about the holiday party at Highlands yesterday and how nice it was and even suggested that maybe we could go with Highlands next year. She said some people wanted to do the casino thing again like we did in 2002 when we had a nice formal dinner at the Broadview. People could stay afterward and play casino games. The organizers had hired the folks at Celebrations to do that part of the event. Some people wanted to do the Warren thing again, where we rented an entire auditorium and had our dinner buffet served in the theater. Anyway, there were several ideas thrown out. I told her if they wanted to do the casino thing, Highlands would be a good option — except I didn’t think that Highlands could do craps and roulette and all that. I gave her their web site so she could check it out.
“Yes but are they still going to be open in six months?” she joked. It’s true that the location has been unlucky for its previous tenants. Then again, the other restaurants didn’t have JD Harvey and Kandu. Highlands seems to be doing quite well for themselves so I have no doubt they’ll be around for a good long time. I really hope we get to have our work holiday party there next year.
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Crazy Night at Highlands
Posted on December 13, 2008 by Ching under Food and Drink, Poker.
Take that title however you want. Suffice it to say we had a “Wylde” and fabulous time, pun intended. Poker couples Vic and Jen and Scott and Sunny were there last night (again). I guess I should be getting used to this by now. They are “Eastsiders” after all and, like us, find the Highlands location extremely convenient. I’m not sure if that is such a good or bad thing. I guess good in a way that we are always guaranteed great company on Friday nights when we are there, but then bad in that now we’ll never be able to stop going because our poker buddies offer an additional draw besides just our regular poker addiction.
Jen was extremely quotable last night. I’m not a good storyteller so it’s probably not going to be as funny on the blog. It was definitely one of those “you should have been there” nights. Perhaps I should start from the beginning?
Got there a little after 7 pm — early by poker standards because the tournament doesn’t start until 9 pm, but too late to catch Kurt. We were hoping to chat with him this week about stuff. What stuff? I’m not quite sure. He just told us last week to track him down. We’ll just have to catch him today at the invite.
Yup, didn’t know there was an invite today. Just found out about that last night. Today is going to be a really long day: step class, brunch, invite, work holiday party, tweetup. I think I’m sleeping in tomorrow. =P I’m debating on whether I should skip step class. I guess it all depends on if I finish this blog entry in time.
Dinner last night was fantastic, by the way. Brian had the scotch chicken with regular fries and I had the brazed pork ribs with yam fries. Sooo good! Surprisingly our bill this time was cheaper than last time, but we realized that I skipped the alcoholic beverages this time. I think the cocktails are what drives up people’s dinner tabs in general. At least such is the case for us.
[ BTW, I think the food was fab last night because JD was there. ]
I had a crappy poker night, which is kind of a self fulfilling prophecy of sorts. Last week I was drinking and did well (made it to the final table). I had concluded that it was the inebriation, rather than my poker skills, that got me there. I decided that I would forgo drinking tonight to test this hypothesis. I did not make it to break. Therefore, I am not skilled enough at poker and must henceforth rely on heavy drinking to get me through the night (I apologize in advance, baby — but, considering that I just proved my theory, there is no other way).
Brian was doing well at break. I don’t know if my threat (I told him that he better make it to the final table, otherwise, he is dancing with me) helped any or not. He did make it to the final table, though. Actually, he finished fourth and in the money. He always tries to outdo me. I finished seventh last week and shy of the money. This week, he does better.
[ Grrr! Now I have try and outdo him. Maybe today will be my day. ]
Oh, and I ran into mom’s realtor pal Leon at poker last night. We actually started at the same table. He made the final table last night also. He made the big money. They did a three-way chop after Brian got knocked out.
His girlfriend, who introduced herself as “his lover” to everyone, was a little frisky last night. She totally molested Shane, who she insisted on referring to as Fabio. I don’t know if Shane should take that as an insult. He is far better looking than the “I can’t believe it’s not butter” mascot.
She grabbed Shane’s valuable ass-ets several times last night and, on one occasion, while Shane was standing there talking to Jen and Sunny and me. Jen was like, “Wow! I don’t even have the balls to do that.”
The woman was so drunk, I’m pretty sure everyone got molested at some point. Well, except for Brian and Vic (and me, I guess; I didn’t get molested either, thank the Lord). She wasn’t selective at all, molesting males and females alike.
Kristy said that she tried to sit on her while she was minding her own business watching Doug and cheering him on as he played. Kristy was like, “Noo! Get off me.”
Anyway, I think Shane got the brunt of it. “I wonder if we should tell his wife,” I joked to Sunny. I decided that I wouldn’t do that. I would just tell the world instead.
“Can I blog this?” I asked. Shane thought I said “Can I block this?” I was thinking to myself (but didn’t have the nerve to say out loud), “Hell no! I would not stand in the way of that woman and her desire to molest you. I don’t think anyone can.”
After I restated my comment, Shane looked at me incredulously. He said, “You’re asking for my permission? I didn’t realize I had an option.”
You all know how I feel about Shane. He is somewhat intimidating (specially when he is angry) so I try not to get on his bad side. Anyway, he was really cool about it, so I feel pretty safe blogging this. I’m still getting used to the nice Shane.
[ Mrs. Shane — if you are reading this — sorry, girl. There was nothing that any of us could do to protect him. ]
Jen later said, “Please don’t ever let me get like that.” LOL. Okay, so Jen and Sunny weren’t completely spotless last night in the molestation area. They were more selective (tasteful?) about it, though. They exercised discretion and mainly just focused on Yanis and his amazing physique, particularly his :very: muscular biceps.
We were assigned to different tables last night so Sunny had to tell me about a conversation that went on at their table. She told me how Jen asked with a straight face, “Have you got your tickets yet?” “To what?” “To the gun show!” Their table busted up laughing. Even the men could not keep a straight face. Definitely a “you should have been there” moment. You guys have to come to Friday night poker one night just to experience the hilarity first hand.
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